Key Drawing Components

I really liked the project components that Ken Vieth covers in the third chapter of From Ordinary to Extraordinary. Drawing is probably the most important artistic skill taught in high schools, and students learn critical concepts from drawing like composition, value, visual weight, contrast, etc. that also apply to other media outside of “drawing”. As boring as having students do still-lifes may seem, it’s the best way to start learning these skills. I think focusing on making work that successfully demonstrates the student’s knowledge of basic skills, is going to produce more successful work. As nice as a photo-realistic image might be, understanding the visual elements of drawing that image is a more important than a good rendering. If as an educator you are always stressing these concepts, and persistently discussing the visual elements of all work produced in the art room, then students will really take those important skills to heart. To successful artists, skills like composition are second nature, and students should be developing that second nature so that they can draw quickly from those skills when making art later.

I really love the work of Zak Smith. His drawings hold a lot of energy and tension, and the emotion given from the textures of his lines really emphasize the atmosphere. A lot of his work wouldn’t be appropriate for students, but his ambition is extrodinary. If you’re familiar with Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow, then you probably understand how notoriously complex the text is. In one project, Smith created 760 separate illustrations that represented each page of the text. It’s such a beautiful and deep project that I really appreciate. But what I appreciate more is that Smith has nearly all of these pages on his website. (FYI, lots of NSFW material throughout his site)

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/zak_smith/page%20index.htm

"When did you first know you wanted to teach?"

I’ve known I wanted to teach art for quite a while now, but only recently has the prospect of teaching students actually appealed to me. Even when I was young, I knew that I wanted a career in an art related field. By the start of my junior year of high school, I had already considered pursing art education, but it was honestly for the convenience of resources. Aside from all of the resources of the art room, many high schools also have a metal shop, wood shop, auto shop, or industrial technology center, all helpful in making my art. But the more I told people I was considering education, a surprising number of people assured me that I was very good at explaining things and would probably make a good teacher. By the time I graduated high school, I had re-decided that I wanted to teach, and that I might actually enjoy teaching as a career. As took classes at the University, I realized that I had missed a lot of critical art related information and concepts in my high school classes. Learning of works by artists like Duchamp opened my eyes tremendously to the world of art, a deeper level of thought and concept that I had never experienced in high school. The more art and education classes I took, I realized how many students miss the ability to explore their potential early in their artistic careers because they haven’t been exposed to the broader concepts that make art into “Art”. Defiantly not trying to lead an Intermedia crusade, by any means, I’m just finding myself more and more interested in providing the knowledge and resources for a student to explore alternatives artistic practices that interest them.

Being a Practing Artist

Being a practicing artist is extremely beneficial when teaching an art classroom. I work hard to learn about working in different mediums and processes, and having a wide background knowledge of “making art” is enormously helpful when helping students with their ideas. With enough experience, processes will reflect ideas in other similar artistic processes. Using the teacher’s prior knowledge of the subject, the teacher can scaffold the student with critical information and get the student to a point where they can really focus their ideas rather than struggling with their construction. One of the things I look forward to the most is producing work as a teacher. I enjoy being challenged by my work, and I think that students will appreciate attempting the same challenges I do. It’s important for students to recognize that making art isn’t just a class, it’s something that people can get very happily involved with. In “From Ordinary to Extraordinary”, Ken Vieth suggest that being actively involved in making art will allow us to maintain perspective while teaching. Vieth also notes that teachers need to model standards, and those standards should also include standards for producing work.

Teaching students technical skills takes time and practice, and sometimes a student’s concept doesn’t call for them learning all of a new process to complete their work. As teachers, it’s important to be able to connect with your students and understand their concepts so you can recognize when to maybe accelerate a student through a one-time process, or if it’s necessary to take extended time to teach a skill because it will be beneficial to them while they continue to work. Having wide background knowledge of making art for sure helps a teacher recognize those situations because they have that previous experience.

Hello, World: My First Blog Post

My High School Experience, Fears About Teaching, What I’m Excited About

My high school experience was pretty typical, but I was had a lot of apathy towards my peers. I really despised the trivialities of teen socializing, mainly gossiping. Art was my main interest, and I put most of my effort into my artwork rather than my school work. I didn’t have bad grades, but I frequently would “coast” my way through classes because they didn’t matter to me. I was involved with the Art Club and Drama Club, and spent most of my weekends building sets for theater. I was defiantly an art kid, and made strong, personal bonds with my art teachers.

What I fear most about teaching is handling defiance, mainly about being productive. I slacked off a lot in high school, and I know that the art room is an environment where this behavior may occur more easily. I’m not so much worried about how to immediately respond, but more interested in making students respond to the material positively so that they want to be productive.

I know I’ll learn a lot from my first few years teaching. What I am most excited about is helping students through their processes, and learning simultaneously with the students. The process of experimenting while making art increases my interest a lot, and I think students will be more interested when they start experimenting on their ideas.